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Computer help: Poll: What digital file format would you use?
- 5/1/09 1:52 PM
.txt
by andy419 - 5/2/09 9:47 AM In reply to: Poll: What digital file format would you use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I would have all my important documents (with no images/graphs etc.) stored as .txt, since there is no encoding, and I would always be able to edit/view them in the future, even without a .txt viewer.
Self Extracting ZIP file.
by johnhartshorn - 5/2/09 11:03 AM In reply to: Poll: What digital file format would you use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
No need to worry about finding the right program, since it's included in the data file. OS may be an issue down the road, but I doubt it.
Yeah but...
by mwooge - 5/2/09 4:12 PM In reply to: Self Extracting ZIP file. by johnhartshorn> Self Extracting ZIP file
> No need to worry about finding the right program,
> since it's included in the data file.
Yeah, but what if a single bit goes bad? The file won't de-zip.
For that matter, the extracting-code is written for a specific CPU, and might well have system or OS calls that won't be valid in the future.
I've never tired this: will a MS self-extracting ZIP file unZIP on a non-Intel Mac?
Best format for archiving data--ASCII
by shadowjack55 - 5/2/09 11:42 AM In reply to: Poll: What digital file format would you use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
ASCII is the most basic of all formats for text. It is not dependent on any software, OS, or computer to be read. They can all do it. In addition to being able to store alphanumeric characters, it has a limited number of symbols that it can store.
If you use any software's proprietary format: MS Office, PDF's, etc, you run the risk of the software becoming obsolete and leaving you in the cold.
Plain text is almost as good, but it lacks the symbol capability of ASCII. ASCII can be read by *any* reader that can look at characters on the storage media. Therefore, almost every program that deals with words or media viewers can read ASCII. If the file becomes corrupted virtually all of the data can be recovered.
I would print out on paper -
by magigigi - 5/2/09 4:15 PM In reply to: Poll: What digital file format would you use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Paper copies have a stronger chance of being found - and understood by people; when technology advances, who knows what can be retrieved from older programs, systems, etc.
Adobe DNG - best compromise to proprietary camera RAW format
by BSt2009 - 5/3/09 7:36 PM In reply to: Poll: What digital file format would you use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I did not see Adobe DNG as one of the standards for Digital image archiving. While it's primarily controlled by a single vendor (Adobe), it does a fine job of preserving 12-bit and 14-bit digital RAW files. The DNG format coupled with advanced photo processing applications such as Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop CS3 and CS4 are beginning to approach 1 single standard for Digital RAW (Camera RAW) files.
My digital workflow in Lightroom 2.3 is set to convert all RAW files to DNG and store on my working DROBO drive. Also, make a backup of the images to a remote Network Share (where I store long-term on SATA drives off-site).
Working this way, I have had no issues converting older RAW files from Canon and Nikon cameras as far back as 2000.
BMP, TXT and RTF
by wbowblis - 5/4/09 6:43 AM In reply to: Poll: What digital file format would you use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I'd avoid any compressed file formats since that requires decompression and a single bit error can render a lot unreadable. Despite any connections with Microsoft, I've never found a viewer that couldn't read BMP and I suspect that even partially corrupted files could be partially recovered. ASCII TXT is universal. Even an Apple II can read it. RTF is more iffy, but if you need to preserve formatting, I think it's apt to be available for a long time.
I've heard a few experts say the safest storage is a powered-down hard drive. I'd avoid very high capacity drives just because higher density is almost certain to mean lower reliability. This, of course, assumes that however it connects to the computer will still exist.
I have my reasons for my preference in reading a pdf file. I have a hand tool with the pdf file that i can use to drag my text up and down the screen while I read. I have never found anything else but pdf that has this hand tool and I find it a far superior way of reading a document.
For this reason I hope pdf lives on.
My choice
by ZoeButton55 - 5/13/09 7:35 PM In reply to: Poll: What digital file format would you use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I would choose txt format to store my digital files and JPG to store digital photos. I feel them more safe than others.
Go with the most predominant.
by ACRScout - 5/29/09 10:02 PM In reply to: Poll: What digital file format would you use? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
For plain text, ASCII, it is universal and nearly error free. For graphics JPG, it is easily convertable to BMP for editing but BMP, while more simply editable and universal is a glutton for disk space.
Text in ASCII and digital images in JPEG or HEX perfect 4 me
by NeelabhBisen - 6/15/09 11:36 AM In reply to: Go with the most predominant. by ACRScoutI would prefer to have all text and dco. files as ASCII and image files in JPG/JPEG or HEX format as they both retain the original content while economise the original file size.
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